Milking-machine apparatus



May 19,1925. 1,538,754 I H. c. ODEN I IILKING MACHINE APPARATUS FiledAug. 2'7. 1919 2 Sheqts-Shegt' 1 ATTORNEY.

| c. open I IIILKING MACHINE APPARATUS Filed Aug. 27. 1919 2 Shuts-Sheet2 IN V EN TOR.

A TTORNE Y.

Fig.4 gz a 4 1% Patented May 19, 1925.

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MILKWQ-MAQHWE Assesse ,App licatio n filegl August 27, 191; swarm.320,097.

the par-ts'for the purpose ofsterilization and cleansing will be reduced to a m inimum and so that practically all tendency of the operiators to sterilize parts thatmay be in ur'ed thereb'yovillbelpractically obviated. --The successful use of milking machinesdemands that, when these machines are not in actual operation, thoselofthe parts {which come'in contact With-the millg must be kept in asterilizing or cleansingqfluid. Experience has demonstrated thattheclass of labor employing these machines will freguently immerse win asterilizing fluid those parts ofthe working apparatus which cannot bebenefitedby sterilization and will in a Very short time be ruined bysuch treatment. Forinst ance,

the pulsator which is usually mounted upon the 'lid of the milk pailwill absolutely be rendered inoper ajtiye if any ext 'anepus fluid ispermitted to enter itl gfllhe va ve structure necessary irrthoSemachines Which use'a pulsating action will ver yfsoon be ,put "out ofoperation if subjected. to v the" sterilizing *fluid. i

I have provided a structure wherein the essential Working parts of anilkin'g 'machine, with the'exception ofthei teat cups and source ofpower, are mounted upon'the lid of; the milk pail. mlnfniy apparatus,

h those parts which"must be steiili z edIand those parts whichvioulclibe injured'by sterilization may be separated with minil'numdifliculty and in s'uch a vay that the elementsofthe :parts needster'ilization or "cleansin "are full "aeesiblwtheaerilizing or ceansing uicl. More specifically,

-I have provided a milk pail cover which is sepa-rable by one operationinto twoparts,

7 one part being lifted With all of its elements accessible tothesterilizing or cleansing "fluid andthe other part being movable to anydesired point as a singleunit.

'Furthermore, I liaveprovided a novel form of milk spigot upon themilk'pail which is particularly useful in connection with a multipleunit milking machine, in that it "comprises a plurality of ma'infniilk'conduits and single alve capablejof opening or closing either'one oftheseconduit's'or both of'thein. In addition, 'I haveprovided anaperture in the milk pail cover which is supplemented by a bafile'fso asto reduce to a minimum all deposits of contaminating materialandtoprevent the vaporized milk from entering the'check valve chamberand clogg ng the check yalve.

"Thepreferred' embodiment {I of my invention is shown in theaccompanying drawings wherein similar characters of reference aesignatecorresponding parts and Wherein= -Figure 1 isa perspective view showingthe manner in which my apparatus is, separated and sterilizationor,cleans'ing effected by immersipn in a sterilizing of cleansing fluid,the pulsator and attached elements being sus'p'ended on' ahook that maybe pro videdgfor this purpose. Flgure 2' is a side elevation, partiallyin section, of the pulsator, valve structure and check valve casingwhich are remove-(1 as a unit from the milk pall cover.

of the milkopail cover ready for immersion. F gure 4 1s aperspectiveview of the m lk pail cover with the parts assembled.

cover is shown .at 1 as having agflange, 2 on A g V g g p, its loiversideand as being formed, with a these \vorlnng parts, are so mountedthat depression '3 which is surrounded on the upper side of the .coverWith an upstanding at 5 and forms avaiv seat" for the ball "valve "6desirably loosely? attached to the cover by means of a chain? Theportion i of thecover immediately surro the aperture 5 is' cle'presseda's'at 3 forsev'eral Figure 8 is a :Vertical transverse section hedrawings, the body portion of the purposes. One reason is that the milkbeing drawn into the parts by vacuum will vaporize to such an extentthat this vapor would otherwise have a tendency to pass upwardly throughthe aperture 5 and into the check valve chamber, with the result thatthe check valve seat would in time become coated with a clogging andcontaminating paste. As it is, however, the depression 3 serves as abaflie which practically obviates this difficulty.

At a point diametrically opposite to the depression 3 on the milk pailcover is a spigot casing 8 having a cylindrical exterior anda downwardlyand inwardly flared-interior 9 forming a seat for the spigot valve 10.By reference to Figures 1 and 1, it will appear that main conduits 11and 12 extend through the valve casing 8. Communication of theseconduits with the interior of the milk pail is under the control of thespigot valve 10 which is provided with spaced clearances or ports 13 and1 1. This spigot valve is particularly useful in connection with adouble unit milking machine for conduit 11 is connected to one set ofteat cups while conduit 12 is connected to another set of teat cups. Thespigot valve may be partially rotated so as to open only the conduit 11,in which event only one set 1 of teat cups will be subjected to thevacuum through the milk pail. On the other hand, the spigot valve may befurther rotated so as to bring the port 14c into registry with theconduit 12 and the port 13 into registry with the conduit 11, in whichevent both sets of teat cups will be subjected to vacuum through themilk pail.

Centrally located upon the milk pail cover I have provided a handlestructure comprising L-shaped standards 15 and 16 with their short legsriveted to the milk pail cover and with their upper ends riveted to acrosspiece 17. This cross-piece is rounded to provide a hand hold and isfurther provided with U-shaped extensions 18 and 19 upon which the setsof teat cups may be hung. The vertical legs of the standards 15 and 16are cut away as at 20.

The structure thus far described co1nprises a single part of myapparatus and all of the parts are connected together so that they maybe immersed in a sterilizing or cleansing fluid as an entirety as shownin Figure 1 of the drawings. None of these parts will be harmed by suchimmersion and it is desirable to so immerse practically all of them.

The structure which is to be removably connected to the structure thusfar described, which structure it is not desirable to sterilize orsubject to any liquid, is shown in Figure 2 of the drawings. Itcomprises a pulsator 21, valve structure 22 and a cylindrical casingelement 23 carrying a screw bolt 24 and having a main vacuum conduit 25.This structure also carries the conduits 26 for connection to thepulsating chambers of the teat cups and the conduits for connection tothe pulsator, one of these being shown at 27. It will be understood thatthere are other conduits not shown in these drawings and that allofthese are removable with the structure shown. Extending from either endof the cylinder 21 are pintles 28.

In assembling,the pintles 28 are placed in the cutaway portions 20 ofthe members 15 and 16 and the cylindrical member v23 is placed down overthe upstanding flange 4 of the cover plate. Then the screw bolt 30 isscrewed down into the threaded opening shown in the cover plate with theresult that the two parts embodying all or the operating mechanism areheld together firmly. In disconnecting the parts for sterilizing 0rcleansing, it is onlynecessary to unscrew the bolt 30 and by tilting thestructure shown in Figure '2 release the pintles 28 from the cutawayportions 20 of .the handle structure. hen this is done, the

check valve 6 is uncovered and both it and its seat are accessible tothe sterilizing or cleansing fluid. It is then desirable to lift out thespigot valve 10 at which time the entire structure shown in Figure 3 maybe immersed in the sterilizing or cleansing fluid. It will be obviousfrom this description that I have provided an extremely simple mechanismwhich is comprised, to all intents and purposes, of only two parts.These parts may be separated by a single operation in every practicalsense and the operator need only do this and set the parts of Figure 2to one side wvhile submerging the parts of Figure 3 in a sterilizing orcleansing fluid as shown in Figure 1. 1th such a structure, there canbeno danger of an operator failing to disconnect all of the parts whichwill be injured by immersion and not only this but all of the partswhich are immersed will have every element thereof accessible to thesterilizing fluid. Those parts which are immersed will obviously bethose parts which come in contact with the milk in the operation of themilking machine. 1 i

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In milking machine apparatus, a milk pail cover comprising twoseparable parts, one partembodying the body of the cover, a check valveand a milk valve casing, and the other part embodying a pulsator,conduit structure, valve structure and the upper portion of the checkvalve casing, said two palrts being separable as units from each 0t er.

2. In milking machine apparatus, a milk neoting said pulsator unit tothe cover, said pail cover comprising a body portion with pulsator beingreadily removable to permit an aperture therein, a readily removablesterilization of other parts of the apparatus. 1 superstructureembodying as a single unit, In testimony whereof I hereby affix my 5 apulsator and a covering chamber for such signature.

aperture and means on the outer surface of v said cover for readilyreceiving and con- HENRY CLYDE ODEN.

